CNN anchor breaks down over vet's suicide

5/30/14 3:06 PM EDT

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin broke down on air Friday afternoon as the parents of an Iraq war veteran read the suicide note he left behind.

Baldwin was speaking to the parents of Daniel Somers, who killed himself last year after suffering from PTSD and receiving treatment at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital, the facility where recent reports alleged that dozens of veterans may have died while waiting for care on secret waiting lists. Those reports and an audit citing a "systematic lack of integrity" at VA hospitals across the country, preceded the resignation on Friday of Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

"My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines could dull and there is no cure. All day every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. It is nothing short of torture," Somers' father Howard read.

Soon after the parents finished the remainder of the first part of the note, Baldwin tried to compose herself before moving on to ask about Somers' history with the VA.

"Forgive me, this is tough," Baldwin said, choking up.

Somers' note also called for President Barack Obama to do more for veterans.

"Is it any wonder then that the latest figures show 22 veterans killing themselves each day? That is more veterans than children killed at Sandy Hook every single day. Where are the huge policy initiatives? Why isn't the president standing with those families at the State of the Union? Perhaps because we were not killed by a single lunatic but rather by our system of dehumanization, neglect and indifference," Somers' parents read from his note.

Somers' parents said it took their son three months to get treatment initially because of confusion over his status as a member of the National Guard, where he was passed around from the Phoenix VA hospital to a Department of Defense hospital before the Phoenix VA ultimately agreed to give him care but that he still encountered problems.

Ultimately though, Somers' mother Gene said she wasn't sure Shinseki resigning would help the situation on the ground for veterans, since a learning curve for the new secretary may mean "time wasted."

"This may have hindered the help that could've happened more immediately," she said. "If you had somebody who was already working within the system and aware of what limitations there were and had seen the bulb go on that people weren't being honest with him I think it may have been better."